The Trail... and so it ends

Final Day - Kirmington to Pocklington

This was our final and pretty chaotic (half) final day - it is fair to say that we are both feeling the strain now, and pretty glad that it is coming to an end!

We cycled over the Humber bridge (I know that it wasn't built at the time, but Granddad Jack would have taken the ferry route over the Humber, at the same location - the best we could do!). Managed to get out of Hull and through East Yorkshire (our tiredness was clear from the amount of wrong turns that we took). Arrival at Pocklington was triumphant and very emotional - we passed an old road sweeper and many hedges as we came in to Pocklington, which I thought was most poignant (it was Jack's profession for much of his adult life).

Back home now - and ready to sleep... I'll give some philosophical thoughts on it all tomorrow, but my brain is dead now...

The Trail... Day 4

From Bardney to Kirmington

The final "full day" of cycling began with much intrepidation - after 3 days of cycling, would we really be able to manage the Lincolnshire wolds with all the weight on our bikes? Would it all prove to be too much for too not so well trained cyclists, who can't claim to be exactly athletes? Also, the vino that we were consuming on the previous night was deceptively lethal....

We set off pretty early and built up a good pace, arriving at the bottom of the hills feeling fresh and ready. Although the climb was a bit of killer, the route down the other side was worth it - the mix of the remaining endorphins and adrenaline triggered by the rapid descent through beautiful countryside was overpowering...

We ended up arriving at our destination in Kirmington (near to Humber "International" Airport - ha ha!)well ahead of schedule...

By far the most fulfilling day since starting out.

The Trail... Day 3

From Long Sutton to Bardney...

Absolutely blasted across some delightful yet strangely post apocalyptic landscapes of the Lincolnshire Fells - found an excellent derelict old chapel (inscribed with the word Pocklington - spooky).

This has got to be the flattest landscape in the world - miles upon miles of very easy (if slightly boring) cycling conditions, following massive drainage ditches old railway tracks.

After cycling approximately 70 miles today, we arrived in in Bardney, at the Black Horse B&B.

"the Swedes are here, the Swedes are here..."

First decent nights kip...

The Trail... Day 2

Wells-Next-the-Sea to Long Sutton

A difficult day following a restless night (we were disturbed by wild boar and eagles that seem to have nested in my hedge). We set off from Wells and trekked on through the beautiful Norfolk villages towards the wash, eating some pigeon that we poached (always keep a knife in your pocket). A treacherous afternoon with the heat going to our heads - which lead to a few navigational errors - we now know how Laurence of Arabia felt (and why Cane got peeved with Abel).

Fortunately a local forager gave us very clear directions on how to cycle in a straight line (over "that stupid roundabout"), and after a venture across the wilderness... we finally arrived in the right Sutton.

Have you ever lodged in a room that any refugee would turn down - because we have (video post to follow)... needless to say, not the best nights sleep - no thanks to the endless, mindless "music" (highlights included boom boom punctuated with the occasional Sam Fox and Elaine Page blurting out from below) and big eared inbreds on motorcycles blasting past the window until 7 am... shall stick to a hedge in future.

The Trail... and so it begins

After starting out from Birmingham to Ely (Cambridgeshire), courtesy of the very kind people at Cross Country Trains, our journey in earnest from North Walsham train station at 6.15 pm on Thursday 1st July.

Day 1 - Banningham to Wells

Within the minutes we were in the wilds of Norfolk negotiating our route to the birth place of Jack Eastoe (AKA Granddad Jack). After an initial an spurt of five miles we arrived at the Church at Banningham. We were astounded to find not one but as many of five tombstones in the small grave yard bearing the name Eastoe. One of these has been confirmed as that of William Eastoe, one of my forebears. Very emotional.


We cycled through Norfolk landscape for approximately four hours before arriving at the first hedge of call, in Well-Next-the-Sea, as night fell on the coast. After a couple of pints of foaming nut brown ale, we hit the hay...

The route

Aye up

We are starting the journey today so will be updating the blog regularly. We will leave Banningham at approximately 5.30 pm and take the route that Jack might have taken as follows:

Lots of photos of hedges and flatcaps to follow!

Man of the world...

Cheers Jack!

"They're all watching me you know, Maron..."

He got on his bike...

"I grew up in the 30's with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking 'til he found it."

Norman Tebbit, 1981.

The merits of the former Conservative MP Norman Tebbit (a.k.a. the Chingford Skinhead) might be questionable, but his father and my granddad, Granddad Jack, had something in common: they both got on their bikes in a bid to find work and neither of them rioted.

Well, I should say that there is no record or memory of Granddad Jack rioting, but we can't be sure. Indeed, a riot in Banningham (Norfolk), where he and several generations before him were raised and lived, would be quite an event in the history of the sleepy village and would not have gone unnoticed.

This much we can be certain of: amid abject rural poverty and homelessness during the 1920s he left Banningham and cycled to Pocklington (East Yorkshire) in a bid to find work. And this is where he stayed until he passed away in 1995.

Now, approximately 90 years later, to honour his memory and raise awareness of issues of homelessness, we are taking "the route he might have taken" from Banningham to Pocklington, cycling the entire 237 mile journey, as he and others like him would have. We will also be raising money for the homeless charity Shelter (see link below, if you would like to contribute).

http://www.justgiving.com/onthetrailofgranddadjack

A humble man in life, Granddad Jack would never have understood the fuss that we are making to honour him in taking "the route he might have taken" all those years ago. However, as someone with a strong social conscience and charitable nature, he would appreciate that we are doing it to raise awareness of homelessness issues, as it is something that he and others like him had to deal with (unless you call sleeping under a comfy hedge a home).

We are consulting old maps, speaking to relatives and "contacting the other side" (consulting mediums, Ouija boards and archaeologists) in order to ensure that the route we take is as similar as possible to what he took.

We intend to produce t-shirts, film the journey, contact local newspapers, update the blog en route, and release a video diary after the event.

John William Eastoe, in taking the peddle from "Banny" to "Pock", we salute you.